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Three PhD graduates from the Department of Forest and Wood Science
Author: Prof David Drew
Published: 19/04/2022

​At the April graduation ceremony of the Faculty of AgriSciences, held on 4 April 2022, the Department of Forest and Wood Science saw three new PhD graduates. These were Dr Simon Ackerman, Dr Alta Saunders and Dr Johann (Ian) Kotzë. 

Dr Ackerman's thesis, supervised by Prof Bruce Talbot and Dr Rasmus Astrup (externally), was titled “Industrial forestry compartment characteristics: the effect on end of rotation processes and the forestry supply chain". Dr Saunders was awarded her PhD for her study entitled “Investigating the photosynthetic and hydraulic trade-off during drought recovery in Eucalypts". Her study was supervised by Prof David Drew. Dr Kotzë, supervised by Prof Thomas Seifert, was awarded his PhD for the development of a national-level invasive alien plant monitoring system for South Africa. 

Well done to all our graduates!

Photo from left to right: Dr Simon Ackerman (with Mr Leeshan Naidoo who graduated with an MSc in Forestry at the same ceremony), Dr Alta Saunders (with supervisor Prof David Drew) and Dr Ian Kotzë (pictured with his daughter Tessa).